Crisis in Britain: Conservative shambles

British Prime Minister Truss has resigned after just six weeks in office. There are calls for new elections – but the Tories will not allow that. Instead, the truss successor should be settled quickly.

Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns – that brings relief to many. That’s very good news, says one. The woman tried to disrupt the country with her crazy politics. Another British woman is also happy: Liz Truss was just terrible.

For the opposition parties in Westminster it is clear that new elections must now be held. Labor leader Keir Starmer made that clear – and so does the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey:

Tories will not agree to a new election

However, this is only an appeal. The opposition can only demand new elections, then there is no automatism. Even if the Tories only recently changed the prime minister, there is no need to let the electorate vote if the whole thing is repeated.

The Conservatives would have to do that themselves, and they won’t do that. Because in polls they were 30 percentage points or more behind Labor and would lose a general election with a bang. Conservative MP Mark Garnier sums it up:

Committee wants to keep the group of applicants small

And so only the Conservatives will decide who will move into 10 Downing Street next and become the third Prime Minister this year. The Conservative parliamentary body responsible for the election process, the so-called 1922 Committee, wants to keep the group of applicants very small. Committee Chair Graham Brady says:

Each candidate must be nominated by at least 100 Conservative MPs to make the list. Anyone who wants to succeed Liz Truss in office must have their supporters together by Monday, 2 p.m. local time. If only one person gets enough votes, they are automatically the new party leader and prime minister.

British Parliament

The Committee of 1922 – also known as “the 22” – is a committee of all backbench Conservative MPs. It meets weekly when the House of Commons is in session. Its leader, usually a high-ranking MP, is elected by committee members and wields considerable influence within the parliamentary party. Since 2010 this has been Sir Graham Brady.

It provides backbenchers with an opportunity to discuss policy and communicate their views to Cabinet. For a long time, MPs played an important role in determining who becomes party leader. It reflects the mood of the backbenchers and is a key factor of power within the party.

The 1922 Committee has also traditionally played an important role within the Tories in confidence votes and in the election of a new leader.

The 1922 Committee was actually formed in April 1923 on the initiative of new Conservative MPs elected in the 1922 general election to facilitate co-operation within the party.

If there is a maximum of three candidates, the Conservative MPs vote and the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The remaining two candidates will be voted on again. In this case, however, no one is eliminated, it is only a matter of demonstrating which candidate the MPs prefer.

This is apparently intended to send a clear message to the party base, which can then use online voting to decide who will win the race. In the summer, the Conservative MPs voted by a clear majority for ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, but the party base then chose Liz Truss as party leader and prime minister. A mistake, as a majority at the base now believes.

Debate about Boris Johnson rekindled

It is considered certain that ex-Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and faction leader Penny Mordaunt will run. With the new search for a leader, however, the discussion about Boris Johnson has flared up again.

Opinions differ widely: some see him as a visionary, others turn away in horror and point out that a parliamentary committee is still investigating whether Johnson lied to MPs in the course of the Partygate affair.

Truss has a record for sure

It doesn’t matter who succeeds Liz Truss in the coming week: he or she must try to unite the party, get a grip on the economic crisis and develop a new vision for post-Brexit Britain. Truss envisioned a “Singapore-on-Thames” and wanted a low-tax, low-regulation Britain. This vision is now likely to be on hold for a long time.

Still, Liz Truss has her place in the history books: When the door at 10 Downing Street closes behind her, she will stand for the shortest tenure in British history.